Tag: Benzema

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World Cup 2022: Karim Benzema package, the Blues groggy



The French world champions woke up on Sunday November 20 without Karim Benzema, Ballon d’Or struck down by a new injury. Another blow for the Blues before facing Australia at the World Cup on Tuesday (kick-off at 8 p.m.).

The series of injured continues to shake up the French team and the latest episode takes the form of a violent shock: the Real Madrid striker is on the ground, like before him Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, Mike Maignan , Presnel Kimpembe and Christopher Nkunku.

It’s a ” sledgehammer “, summarizes the daily La Provence en Une, when the sports newspaper L’Equipe headlines on the “ Lead Balloon “. Benzema” sees his hopes of winning the World Cup with the Blues dashed, one of his goals as he reported after receiving the Ballon d’Or on October 17 sums up Le Progrès, the flagship daily of his native region.

Convalescent for a month, Benzema hoped to see the end of the tunnel on Saturday, participating in his first collective training with the Blues. But he had to cut it short, victim of a “ lesion “left thigh muscle” which will require a recovery period of three weeks “, explained the Federation.

“Leave my seat”

” In my life I have never given up but tonight I have to think about the team as I always have “, reacted the striker on Instagram, on the night of Saturday to Sunday. ” Reason tells me to leave my place to someone who can help our group have a good World Cup “. At 34, Benzema will probably never play a second World Cup, after that of 2014 which he finished in the quarter-finals, in the shoes of France’s top scorer.

FIFA regulations allow Didier Deschamps to call a new player until Monday, the day before France-Australia, to make a last-minute replacement in the event of injury. But he can also decide to keep a group of 25 players. To defend their 2018 title, the Blues will have to do without the former Lyonnais, who returned to favor last year after his banishment (2015-2021) following the “sextape affair”.

More than ever, Paris SG star Kylian Mbappé finds himself at the center of expectations. The attack tank remains well filled, however, with Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembélé, Kingsley Coman, Marcus Thuram, Randal Kolo Muani … and Olivier Giroud, eternal return and first applicant to replace Benzema.

mysterious evil

A rather thick haze has surrounded Benzema’s state of health since mid-October. He had been complaining of persistent discomfort in his right thigh for several weeks, without the nature of his physical problems being clearly established.

He had played his last match in full on October 19, an Elche-Real won 3-0 by Madrid with a goal from the Frenchman, crowned Ballon d’Or two days earlier in Paris. And he had only been able to play since then for about thirty minutes on November 2 in the Champions League. The stretch of his recovery period began to raise questions on the eve of the World Cup, in particular his ability to repeat high-intensity efforts in the heat of Qatar.

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Ballon d’or 2022, Karim Benzema enters the legend



The moment of consecration comes. At 34, Karim Benzema was crowned Ballon d’Or by the magazine France Soccer this Monday, October 17, on the occasion of a ceremony organized with great fanfare at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Paris. A distinction that rewards, beyond an incredible year, an extraordinary career for the striker of Real Madrid and the France team.

By signing in 2009 at Real Madrid, which some might see as an achievement, Karim Benzema was only beginning a long road. A precocious star at Olympique Lyonnais, the young man from Bron found himself in competition with the Franco-Argentinian Gonzalo Higuain before officiating as a supporting role alongside the Portuguese juggernaut Cristiano Ronaldo. In this institution that many call the biggest club in the world, led by the king of construction Florentino Perez, competition is fierce and the requirement is high at its peak.

In 2010, José Mourinho, then coach of the “Casa Blanca”, had also qualified the famous French striker of ” cat “, openly complaining that Karim Benzema was not the hound he needed in his attacking line. RMC journalist Frédéric Hermel, a connoisseur of the Spanish championship, remembers that at the time the Habs had doubts about their future at the club. “It was his father who reassured him by telling him one thing: you have to succeed at Real Madrid, because it is simply your dream. »

Stat Monster

Since then, the cat has become a lion. Freed from a weight after the departure of Ronaldo, during the summer of 2018, Benzema became again at 30 years old this type of attacker capable of tipping a match. “One day, Karim told me that when Ronaldo left, he found the way he played in Lyon”, remembers Fréderic Hermel And this pillar of the show “After Foot” on RMC to explain: “He loves the game so much. He’s not frustrated not to score, as long as he gets others to score. Statistics don’t matter to him. He likes it, like any attacker, but is not satisfied with it. » For the latter, Benzema hates the term “sacrifice”. “’Karim’ in Arabic means ‘generous’. This is how he defines himself on the pitch. »

At a time when we swear by killer attackers and finishers on the pitch, Benzema indeed offers a significant number of assists to his teammates in the Madrid attack, makes the collective shine. “When I play, I try to respect football. Because I love him,confided the person concerned last January to the specialized magazine France Soccer. I can’t shoot from a tight angle when a teammate has come out. I’ll pass the ball to him. »

Scorer, passer, the player goes through full seasons. This Golden Ball completes an exceptional year: 44 goals and 15 assists in 46 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid in 2021-2022. He won the title of “Pichichi”, the top scorer in La Liga, the Spanish championship which he won with his team. In the Champions League, the queen European competition in which Real also emerged victorious, he scored a whopping 15 goals, more goals alone than 23 of the teams qualified for the competition that year.

A successful return to blue

Adored by the Madrid public, hailed by the press, recognized by his peers, Benzema is now again pampered by French supporters. Leaving behind him the media and legal affairs – from the Zahia affair to the Mathieu Valbuena sextape affair, there will have been several – the Real Madrid star striker has also managed a spectacular return to the Blues . The only player in sight during Euro 2020 (postponed to 2021 due to the health crisis) then savior in the League of Nations, he once again became a centerpiece of Didier Deschamps’ workforce at the dawn of the World Cup. in Qatar. “He was afraid of not coming back, probably he no longer believed in it, remembers Frédéric Hermel. But he surpassed that, to win in a team that had won the world title without him. »

Crowned with the ultimate individual coronation, Benzema joined the very closed circle of tricolor winners of the Ballon d’Or (Kopa in 1958, Platini in 1983, 1984 and 1985, Papin in 1991 and Zidane in 1998). “A reward that goes in the right direction, believes Frédéric Hermel. He brings a touch of aesthetics and artistry, like his teammate Luka Modric. It is reassuring that we do not swear by statistics at a time when we live a particularly athletic football. »

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– Women’s Ballon d’Or is once again won by the Spaniard Alexia Putellas. She becomes the first player in history to retain her Ballon d’Or.

– The Kopa Trophy for the best young playerr in the world in 2022 was awarded to the Spaniard Gavi.

– The “Socrates” Prize, rewarding a player for his good deeds outside of football, was presented to Senegalese Sadio Mané. The latter had hospitals built in Bambali, his hometown in Senegal.

– The Gerd Muller Trophyrewarding the top scorer of last season, was awarded to the Pole Robert Lewandowski, FC Barcelona player and main rival of Karim Benzema in La Liga.

– The Yachine Trophyrewarding the best goalkeeper of the past season was awarded to Thibaut Courtois, the last bastion of Real Madrid and the Belgian selection.

– The Manchester City club, in England, received the club of the year award.

– The Senegalese Sadio Mané (Liverpool), African champion, and the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), complete the podium. Kylian Mbappé, the only other Frenchman present among the top 10 players in the final ranking, ranks 6e .

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At Real Madrid, Karim Benzema’s delayed peak



It’s a paradox that only the biggest names in football manage to overcome. By cultivating the love of the beautiful gesture without denying its effectiveness in front of goal, Karim Benzema is essential in this category. The Real Madrid striker has made this season – his most prolific – proof that the best is not necessarily the enemy of the good, and the Stade de France public will be waiting for another demonstration against Liverpool on Saturday May 28. , in the final of the Champions League, the most prestigious of European club competitions.

If the Frenchman puts his hands on the Cup again, after having already brandished it four times in the Merengue jersey, he will be even closer to the Ballon d’Or, awarded next October, before the World Cup in Qatar (November 21- December 18). Already titled without difficulty last week in the Spanish league, which he finished for the first time by dominating the scorers’ rankings, Benzema would have the most convincing arguments to join Zinedine Zidane (1998), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991 ), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985) and Raymond Kopa (1958) in the circle of French crowned best players in the world over the past year.

Altruistic goalscorer

However, it has been ages since the Madrilenian has already been close to the top of the basket, accustomed to the requirement of the most named club in European competitions (19 times). But the world of football did not spare him following his move from Lyon, his training club, to Real Madrid in 2009, accusing him of not being firm enough when it came to concluding, or of scattering over field. Even if it means forgetting that, in the middle of the second generation of “Galacticos” concocted at the time by Florentino Perez, its emblematic president, the young Benzema had to serve for a long time as a factotum for the most famous of them, Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese left to chase records on other lawns, the Frenchman became the strong man of the locker room. Consequence: it is at 34 years old (he will be 35 in December) that the captain has never seemed so comfortable in his crampons. He claims to have stayed “the same player”able to take the light while letting his partners shine on the front of the attack: “When I play, I try to respect football. Because I love him,confided the interested party in January to the specialized magazine France Soccer. I can’t shoot from a tight angle when a teammate has come out. I’ll pass the ball to him. »

Savior this season in the Champions League

In style too, Karim Benzema is pouring, this season more than the others, into “at the same time”, to combine racy sequences, ball at the foot, with a speed of execution and a power more in line with the standards of the moment. Giving the impression of always counting one step ahead. The time needed, especially when the defenders surround him, to allow himself the right gesture, like his decisive goal to put the French team back in the right direction, in October 2021, against Belgium in the League of nations. The competition crowns his return to selection after five years of sidelining due to his involvement in a legal case (guilty of complicity in attempted blackmail against his former teammate, Mathieu Valbuena) – for which he was finally sentenced in November, without further consequences, this time, on his career with the Blues.

The player exudes a serenity rarely seen on the pitch. In spectator memory, we have never seen him rush to a referee to challenge a decision, or encourage him in one direction. Benzema does with, or he does without. But he always does something. “Me, when I’m on the pitch, I just try not to let my team let go of the game. OK, we can lose 4-0, but we will create five chances. he explained to The Team last month. While Real systematically took the water against Paris Saint-Germain, then against the English of Chelsea and Manchester City, his ten goals and his assist carried his team at arm’s length from the eighth to the semi-finals , sometimes with the assistance of small French hands Eduardo Camavinga and Ferland Mendy.

A few days after his hat-trick against PSG, one of the last of his 323 achievements in more than 600 games for Real Madrid, Karim Benzema has become the best French scorer in history, clubs and selection combined, ahead of Henry , Papin or Platini. And if the striker were to suffer a breakdown on Saturday evening, his teammates could take care of recalling the reason for their presence, as during their victory a month ago on the Osasuna field, despite two penalties missed by the ‘attacker.

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English surge expected in Paris

Scheduled for Saint Petersburg, the Champions League final was rescheduled at the Stade de France (Saint-Denis) the day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The French authorities had to review their organization for the day of Saturday May 28. If nearly 60,000 English supporters of Liverpool are expected, estimated a police source quoted by Agence France-Presse, only 20,000 of them have a ticket for the match (9 p.m.), i.e. as many as the Spanish supporters of Real Madrid.

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Real lost close to Man City after chasing the score


Karim Benzema’s double helped Real lose 3-4 at Man City in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, on the evening of April 26.

This is a result that pleases the away team. Because three times, they were led by two goals but still narrowed the gap. Real was overwhelmed by the attacking style of Man City’s machine. But thanks to the opponent’s missed too much, along with a bit of luck when they were awarded a penalty at the end of the game, Carlo Ancelotti’s teachers and students left Etihad with enough results for them to have a basis upstream in the second leg at home.

De Bruyne opened the scoring for Man City. Image: Guardian.

Immediately after serving, some positions of Real showed signs of psychological matching. The phase of handling errors in the home part of the away team created conditions for Man City to overflow and put pressure on. The opening goal soon came to Pep Guardiola’s army. Riyad Mahrez crosses into the box and Kevin De Bruyne slips behind Federico Valverde to head into the net of Thibaut Courtois, despite a tackle from Dani Carvajal.

This match, Valverde was placed in the middle of the field, instead of the usual right wing. Instead of using Eduardo Camavinga, Ancelotti ranked Toni Kroos as an anchor midfielder instead of the injured Casemiro. This decision made Real’s defensive ability weakened. At the opening goal, Kroos could not stop Mahrez from providing an assist and in the first 30 minutes, Real was completely lost in the middle of the field.

Man City did not have too many difficulties to double the gap. De Bruyne continued to shine as his left wing slamming pass caused David Alaba to miss. Gabriel Jesus successfully controlled and defeated Courtois at close range. The Brazilian striker continues to be the “fierce god” of Real. When the two teams met in the 1/8 round of the Champions League 2019-2020, Jesus scored in both matches.

Benzema shortened the score 1-2 for Real with a classy finish. Photo: Reuters.

Benzema shortened the score 1-2 for Real with a classy finish. Image: Reuters.

The home team had more chances to settle this semi-final in just half an hour. De Bruyne overcame Ferland Mendy before poking a slot for Mahrez. But instead of passing to De Bruyne or Phil Foden who are in a favorable position, the Algerian midfielder shot into the edge of the net. Witnessing Mahrez’s personal ball, Guardiola got angry on the touchline. Not long after, De Bruyne created another opportunity for Foden, but in the corner of his forte, the England player missed the post.

Guardiola’s worries are well-founded. Because in parallel with the overwhelming attack, Man City also revealed a deviation at home. Goalkeeper Ederson twice passed the wrong address and Ruben Dias lost the ball before the penalty area. Real could not take advantage of these flaws. But from a cross from Mendy, Benzema showed killer instincts with a one-touch finish, bringing the ball to the edge of the post and into the net.

Real woke up after this goal and nearly equalized when Rodrygo caused Ederson to punch the ball into the corner. Realizing that John Stones could not contain Vinicius Junior on the right, Guardiola soon brought in Fernandinho in the hope that the midfielder’s experience would help. However, no more goals were scored in the first half.

Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden rejoice after Man City's fourth goal. Photo: Reuters

Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden rejoice after Man City’s fourth goal. Image: Reuters

After the break, Ancelotti brought in Nacho to replace Alaba to strengthen the defense. But Real continued to start the half badly. The other central defender – Militao – made the mistake of letting Mahrez pass. Fortunately for Real, Mahrez hit the column in the face of Courtois. Foden’s free kick was blocked by Carvajal.

However, the third goal quickly came to Man City. Putting Fernandinho on the field seemed to be the right decision for Guardiola when the player won the ball in front of Vinicius’s boots, before crossing Foden to head the goal. However, two minutes later, Fernandinho let Vinicius pass, leading to a goal that shortened the score to 2-3 for the visitors. The speed strength of the young talent on Real’s side was maximized when he led the ball from the middle of the field into the penalty area and then defeated Ederson.

But Real’s joy did not last long. Courtois helped them avoid a goal from Laporte’s close-range ball. But the Belgian goalkeeper was stuck in front of Bernardo Silva’s tight kick into the net. Real complained because the referee raised the whistle to punish Kroos after he cut down Oleksandr Zinchenko but did not blow it but gave Man City the advantage. This made the visitors stop, creating conditions for Silva to finish.

List of competitions

Man City: Ederson, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Zinchenko, De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Foden.

Real: Courtois, Carvajal, Eder Militao, Alaba, Mendy, Valverde, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo, Benzema, Vinicius Junior.

*Continue to update

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Case of the sextape: Karim Benzema sentenced to one year in prison



After more than six years, the “sextape affair” was finally judged: the Real Madrid player Karim Benzema was sentenced on Wednesday November 24 to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a € 75,000 fine, convicted of complicity in attempted blackmail on his former teammate, Mathieu Valbuena.

In his judgment, the president of the 7e chamber of the Versailles Criminal Court considered that Karim Benzema had “Personally involved, at the cost of subterfuge and lies, to convince his teammate to submit to blackmail”.

→ READ. Karim Benzema and the sextape affair, the incomprehensible implication

The player’s lawyers immediately announced their intention to appeal, specifying that their client, absent from the proceedings last month and from the deliberations on Wednesday, would be present at a second trial. “The reaction is ultimately a reaction of anger”, notably lambasted Me Sylvain Cormier, saying to himself “Flabbergasted” by one “Very severe sentence, unjust and without proof”.

Duty of exemplarity

The 33-year-old striker was also ordered to pay € 80,000 to the complainant and a symbolic euro to the French Football Federation, which had taken legal action in this case.

For his involvement in this intimate video blackmail, the prosecution had requested against the player ten months suspended sentence and a € 75,000 fine. The prosecutors had recalled in their indictment the duty of exemplarity of the star of the France team, “Bearer of an image, hope, notoriety and moral values”.

Besides Karim Benzema, four other men were convicted in this case. Considered the ” umbilical cord “ In this case, Mustapha Zouaoui was notably sentenced to two and a half years in prison and an arrest warrant was issued against him. His lawyer announced he was going to appeal.

Benzema should stay in Blue

“My client was waiting for recognition of his victim status, he had it, he is satisfied, he does not expect any particular apology from anyone”, also declared Mathieu Valbuena’s lawyer, Me Didier Domat.

“We have important civil interests, not negligible, but once again that will not be able to erase the damage that results from his non-selection for the France team”, he added. During the hearing, the current midfielder of Olympiakos (Greece), 37, recalled that this affair had cost him his place with the Blues, he who at the time had 52 selections for the national team.

→ READ. Euro 2021: Karim Benzema back, the risky bet of Didier Deschamps

Karim Benzema, he remained away from the French selection for more than five years before making a surprise return before Euro 2021. This conviction should not, however, keep him away from the Blues again. Two weeks ago, the boss of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, explained that the 33-year-old striker “Would not be excluded” of the selection in case of “Judicial sanction”.

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Football: Karim Benzema and the sextape affair, the incomprehensible implication



But what the devil was Karim Benzema doing in this mess? This is one of the questions that the Versailles court will try to answer, before which appear from this Wednesday, October 20 the five defendants of the blackmail case to the “sextape” of which Mathieu Valbuena was a victim, there is six years old. Because the mystery remains, long after the media explosion of the case in the fall of 2015 and its extensions until spring 2016 with the exclusion of Karim Benzema from the France team, and a change of sporting foot, before even this trial, with his return to selection in May 2021.

→ IN 2021. Euro 2021: Karim Benzema back, the risky bet of Didier Deschamps

How did the flagship striker of the Blues find himself embroiled in this story? At almost 28 years old, Karim Benzema was not a partridge of the year at the time. The nasty muddles, he knows. The Zahia case, in which he was suspected of having had recourse in 2008, like his teammate Franck Ribéry, to the services of the then minor escort-girl Zahia Behar, weighed on his shoulders until the release of the two players. by the Paris Criminal Court in January 2014. A month later, Karim Benzema became a father for the first time, and he said to himself “More posed”.

The star and her “brother”

His career is then in good shape. On March 26, 2015, in the absence of Hugo Lloris, he released his stripes as captain of the France team. At Real Madrid, he also delights. On September 15, 2015, he scored in the Champions League against Chakhtar Donetsk his 43e European goal, entering the ranking of the top ten scorers in this competition. At the time, Karim Benzema received € 700,000 in monthly salary. At least that is what he declared to the investigating judge during a hearing in November 2015.

On November 5, the star is indicted for ” conspiracy “ and “Complicity in attempted blackmail”. The first charge is quickly dropped. There remains the second, which earned him his dismissal in correctional. “A masquerade”, assures Karim Benzema today on social networks. Except that it is indeed, of this masquerade, embarked by his friend Karim Zenati.

This other Karim is the star’s childhood friend. They grew up together, in the Lyon suburbs. But Karim Zenati, two years older, quickly slipped. From 12 years old, the first offenses. Then various thefts, and barely major, in 2003, two armed robberies. Convenience stores. He is sentenced to 8 years in prison. He does half of it. He leaves, but in 2009, falls again for having participated in a drug delivery. Seven more years. But never, during all this time, Karim Benzema let go of his “brother”. And when the latter enjoys parole, in September 2013, Karim Benzema is still there to employ him as ” administrative assistant “ in one of its companies, at € 3,300 per month.

City codes

In complete confidence ? When Karim Zenati asks him to contact Mathieu Valbuena to discuss a sextape held by acquaintances, Karim Benzema, in any case, goes for it. He does not know that Karim Zenati and his acquaintances are wiretapped because Mathieu Valbuena, already approached by the individuals in possession of the sextape, warned the police. The striker evokes the affair with Mathieu Valbuena during a rally of the Blues in Clairefontaine, on October 6, offering to put him in contact with one of his friends who could settle the affair. Immediately after, he calls Karim Zenati. It is this dialogue, recorded by the police, that will be at the heart of the trial.

In front of the judge during the investigation, Karim Benzema recognizes “A rotten thing”, but who “Was only help”, explaining that he only wanted to allow Mathieu Valbuena to recover his sextape. On the side of Karim Zenati, same defense: “If I thought of blackmailing Valbuena, I wouldn’t have gone through Karim. It would be twisting the hand of the one who feeds me. “ During the investigation, the two men clear each other. They haven’t cut ties since.

One certainty: the trial falls today at a time when, sportingly, Karim Benzema is at the top. On a cloud in Madrid, savior of the fatherland with the Blues in the League of Nations, he is in the race this year for the Golden Ball. The sextape affair reflects the image of a personality that can be influenced and still obeys certain neighborhood codes. This is not the best advertisement.

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Valbuena present, Benzema undoubtedly represented

The main victim of the case is obviously Mathieu Valbuena. Beyond the alleged blackmail, from his revelation, the midfielder, who was among the major players of the selection, has never donned the blue jersey. His lawyers guaranteed his presence at the trial. However, uncertainty remains for Karim Benzema, who with Real Madrid faced Chakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday October 19 in the Champions League, before a major meeting in La Liga this weekend for the “Clasico” Sunday October 24 in Barcelona. . He could be represented by his lawyers.

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French football team: what has already changed Karim Benzema



Are you more Olivier Giroud or Karim Benzema? Always on the lookout for sensitive issues in the field of sport, the Odoxa polling institute (in partnership with RTL) surveyed the French at the end of last week on their vision of the two leading attackers competing for the position of center forward. The 1,005 people in the sample representing 67 million French breeders are slightly in favor of Olivier Giroud. The poll was carried out in the wake of France Bulgaria, we can think that the two goals of the Chelsea striker, who had replaced Karim Benzema out of injury, have tipped the scales.

→ READ. Euro 2021: Karim Benzema back, the risky bet of Didier Deschamps

Note that the difference is widening, depending on whether the people questioned are more or less old or declare themselves more or less football fans. Basically, young connoisseurs vote Benzema at 51%, the oldest less interested in the game, voting Giroud at 59%. We will therefore put President Macron, a football fan and quite young, in the camp of the “Benzemists”. What he confirmed during his visit to the Blues last Thursday at Clairefontaine, the national football center, by weaving wreaths in the Madrilenian.

A question of philosophy

Beyond this debate related to the personality and the course of one and the other, the coach Didier Deschamps is clearly in front of a genuine question on the philosophy of the game. He knew it well by summoning Karim Benzema for this Euro after five years of quarantine: Benzema and Giroud do not play the same football. The first is technical, fast and able to play Spanish football with small touches behind the backs of the defenders. The second is tall, strong in the head, used to large transversals and evolves in the English style, back to goal just in front of the defensive curtain.

→ ANALYSIS. Euro 2021: Karim Benzema, bulky guest of Didier Deschamps

If Olivier Giroud has obviously proven himself (he is now the second scorer in the history of the Blues, with 46 goals, five lengths from Thierry Henry), Didier Deschamps has chosen to recall a player without doubt more complementary with the other two points of the attack triangle. Particularly Kylian Mbappé, fond of long deep passes, an area in which Karim Benzema, long chief supplier to Cristiano Ronaldo in Madrid, excels. Passeur, Karim Benzema is also a great scorer, the best French in history in the Champions League, in the white jersey of Real Madrid.

Difference in club record, even if Giroud’s European Cup course is honorable with a contract that has just been extended to Chelsea. But above all a difference in style. Olivier Giroud runs alone forward, waiting for the offering of a bullet that does not always come, which he awkwardly blamed on Kylian Mbappé at the end of France-Bulgaria, causing a beginning of controversy. Conversely, Benzema varies the trajectories and movements in the opposing defense, distilling long balls for one (Mbappé) or short for the other (Griezmann), who loves acrobatic passes in the feet in the middle of the race.

One is world champion, the other is not

We will not forget that France has become European vice-champion and world champion in the first diagram, with Giroud. But Didier Deschamps seems to have chosen. Even if the Chelsea striker can easily win among the big German players, he should align the entry Madrilenian, even if it means facing an obvious fact: in two games, Karim Benzema has not scored. It is therefore already outside the nails of the statistics generally expected of a scorer: around 0.5 goal per game, or one goal every two games at least.

The Madrileño still has not found the opening, but he participated or triggered a mountain of chances, which were not always at the end. With Benzema, France played well, whether against Wales or Bulgaria, but didn’t score that much. With Giroud, from the 41e minute, the team started to thwart, but scored twice, taking advantage especially of the Bulgarian deconcentration. The rest of the analysis belongs to Didier Deschamps, who will probably only have cast a distracted look at the Odoxa survey.

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Germany, France’s best enemy

Contrary to popular belief, France largely leads the score against Germany. The two teams have met 31 times in history, with France winning fourteen times, Germany nine, with both teams drawing eight times.

The appearance of Germanic superiority is based on the period of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when the Mannschaft was effectively three cubits above. She left two stinging memories at the Blues of Platini: the semi-final of the World Cup in Seville (1982) and that of the Mexican World Cup, four years later.

In recent times, the Blues have been undefeated since the quarter-final lost at the Brazilian World Cup in 2014, notably with a victory in the semi-final at Euro 2016.

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Euro 2021: Karim Benzema, bulky guest of Didier Deschamps



The rumor of Karim Benzema’s return to blue will have swelled all day. First suggested then confirmed by The team, taken up by specialized football sites, it spread in the afternoon of Tuesday, May 18. Before being very probably formalized live on TF1 and M6, the two French channels sharing the retransmission of the Euro (June 11-July 11).

It would therefore be true, the coach registered on his list of 26 selected players a name that was believed to be erased forever, that of Karim Benzema. The thread between the blue jersey and the Madrilenian was loosened in 2015. At issue, the so-called intimate video case (sextape), in which the player was accused of having played the intermediary between his teammate in the team of France Mathieu Valbuena and the blackmailers who threatened it.

Heard, then indicted and finally returned (in January 2021) to the criminal court, the player was suspended as a precaution by the President of the Federation, before being deprived of selection for Euro 2016 taking place in France . The link had broken, definitively, we thought at the time, when the player had declared in an interview that Didier Deschamps had “Yielded under the pressure of a racist part of France”. A formula that the coach had not supported, whose house had been tagged with the word “Racist”.

The support of Zidane and the president of the FFF

But Didier Deschamps ended up passing the sponge, in a posture which is not so foreign to him. This is not the first time that he has gone back on a decision in the name of the collective interest. Since his arrival at the head of the Blues in 2012, he has thus extended his hand several times to players removed from the lists. After André-Pierre Gignac and Hatem Ben Arfa, the latest is Adrien Rabiot, reinstated in the French team after being self-excluded in 2018, by refusing the invitation as a simple reserve for the World Cup. At the time, the president of the Federation, Noël Le Graët, declared that “No one can be punished for life”, quote that everyone had interpreted at the time as a possible reduction of sentence for Rabiot as for Benzema.

In the same vein, the direct boss of Karim Benzema in Madrid, his trainer Zinédine Zidane, had reaffirmed his support at the end of March. “Karim is a p… player. When you love football, you love Karim. It is obligatory. I do not understand this (that it is not selected) and a lot of people don’t understand that ”. Raphaël Varane, Madrid defender and vice-captain of the France team also spoke of his teammate, diplomatically: “He’s one of the best strikers in the world (…) Karim is playing his best football, very elegant, very important for Real. But it’s not my role to interfere between Zinédine Zidane and Didier Deschamps. “

The shape of his life

Didier Deschamps have he yielded to a form of pressure? It would be bad to know the entire character of the Basque, protected by his results as a finalist of a Euro and winner of a World Cup. If he selected the Madrilenian it is because he saw that the former Lyonnais, in whom he had kept confidence in 2013 despite a year without a goal in blue, is in the form of his life. He has also just been elected by the UNFP (National Union of Professional Footballers) as the best French player playing abroad. Symbolic decision, and undoubtedly well informed, when we know that almost all the holders in blue evolve outside France.

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Scorer, one of the very best in Europe with 29 achievements in a Spanish championship with formidable defenses, he is also a formidable passer (eight assists in La Liga this season), able to put wisps into orbit in all positions like Kylian Mbappé or Antoine Griezmann. From a sporting point of view, the choice of Deschamps is therefore indisputable, but it is likely that he will be extensively commented on outside the confines of the stadium. Developing under the French banner a player, admittedly presumed innocent, but with loads heavy enough on his shoulders to be sent back to correctional, is not trivial. His trial date has been set for October 20, 2021.

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